Positivity Versus Negativity: Cold or Hot Cognition?

• In Event: ICA Interactive Paper/Poster Session I
  In Interactive Poster Session: Information Systems Interactive Poster Session

Abstract

People react differently to equivalent messages phrased in positive or negative wordings. We investigated for three types of framing how they generalize across languages and tested whether they are caused by differences in emotional loading between positive and negative wordings by comparing the framing effects between a first language and a second language, as language users are expected to be less emotionally involved when using a second language compared to using their L1.
An experiment was conducted among 453 American subjects, through MTurk. Texts were developed about political issues in a 2x2x3 design: positive vs. negative frame, English vs. Spanish, and L1 speakers, vs. L2 speakers, and bilinguals. Subjects reported to experience less emotional resonance in their non-native language L2, but – against the emotional resonance hypothesis - framing effects were equally large in native and non-native languages. We do find consistent framing effects across tasks and across both languages.

Authors

• Bregje Holleman, Utrecht U

• Emily Felker, Radboud U Nijmegen

• Naomi Kamoen, Utrecht U/ Tilburg U

• Marijn Struiksma, Utrecht U / UiL OTS